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The Egyptian Minor Scale
Dec. 16th, 2007 05:28 pmI'm listening to Miles, the autobiography of Miles Davis. He talks about being at the Minton Theater Schoo of Be-Bop under Professor Bird and Professor Diz while he's also going to Juliard, and in it he mentions that he would sometimes show Dizzy things he learned at Juliard. In that he specifically mentions the Egyptian Minor Scale. He explains it strangely, but I checked it out and found a much more straightforward way to explain it.
Take a harmonic minor scale. (A natural minor with a raised 7th scale degree so that you have a leading tone again) Now, raise the 4th scale degree so that it's the tri-tone.
Example: C, D, E flat, F sharp, G, A flat, B, C.
This should play well with the Blues scale, so it opens up some interesting Jazz solo options. It's also a different sound, and has that tension of the tri-tone in it.The Augmented Second between E flat and F sharp also adds sort of a Phrygian sound to the scale, but since the root, third, and fifth are unchanged from pure minor you still have the same tonality. I find this interesting, and other musicians on my friends list might also.
It's also interesting to learn new scales, as they open up all kinds of harmonic things to play over. So far, I know about the major, all three common Minor, All 7 modes, Chromatic, Whole Tone, the two Octatonic, (also called the diminished scales) and this new Egyptian Minor scale, and I know how to alter scales for altered chords from my Jazz theory class. I also know an interesting symmetrical scale, where you build the scale by incrementing up the number of step relationships each note. So the first interval is a half step, the second is a whole step, and the third is a step and a half, then the fourth is a step and a half again, the fifth is a step, and the sixth is a half step again, resolving to the tonic.
Example: C, D flat, E flat, G Flat, A, B, C
If you have any interesting scales, feel free to shoot them my way.
Take a harmonic minor scale. (A natural minor with a raised 7th scale degree so that you have a leading tone again) Now, raise the 4th scale degree so that it's the tri-tone.
Example: C, D, E flat, F sharp, G, A flat, B, C.
This should play well with the Blues scale, so it opens up some interesting Jazz solo options. It's also a different sound, and has that tension of the tri-tone in it.The Augmented Second between E flat and F sharp also adds sort of a Phrygian sound to the scale, but since the root, third, and fifth are unchanged from pure minor you still have the same tonality. I find this interesting, and other musicians on my friends list might also.
It's also interesting to learn new scales, as they open up all kinds of harmonic things to play over. So far, I know about the major, all three common Minor, All 7 modes, Chromatic, Whole Tone, the two Octatonic, (also called the diminished scales) and this new Egyptian Minor scale, and I know how to alter scales for altered chords from my Jazz theory class. I also know an interesting symmetrical scale, where you build the scale by incrementing up the number of step relationships each note. So the first interval is a half step, the second is a whole step, and the third is a step and a half, then the fourth is a step and a half again, the fifth is a step, and the sixth is a half step again, resolving to the tonic.
Example: C, D flat, E flat, G Flat, A, B, C
If you have any interesting scales, feel free to shoot them my way.
